Hope by Lesley Pearse Page A

mistress together, clearly happy, she thought maybe the Captain might only have called here while he was visiting his relatives because it would have been impolite not to.
    Yet Nell was still troubled about her mistress’s request for Hope to come and play with Rufus. If Bridie was here now she’d have thrown up her hands in horror. But Nell couldn’t refuse, or make an excuse. She’d just have to hope that the visit wouldn’t go well, that Lady Harvey would decide Hope wasn’t a fit companion for her son, and that would be the end of it.
    Nell’s hopes that the visit would be a failure were dashed. It was raining on Monday, so the children had to stay in the day nursery. Hope was so thrilled by Rufus’s toys, the like of which she’d never seen before, that she was only too happy to play with whatever he wanted. She built him castles with his building blocks and laughed when he knocked them down. They rode on his rocking-horse together, and Hope looked at Rufus’s picture books with him.
    Lady Harvey joined them for tea, and Hope turned on her charm shamelessly, admiring the delicate china, eating and drinking far more daintily than she usually did, even reprimanding Rufus for not eating the crusts on his bread and jam.
    It was clear Rufus thought she was the best thing ever to come into his young life, and when it was time for Nell to take Hope home, he clung to her tearfully, making his mother promise she could come again the following week. As Nell walked across the paddock with Hope she could imagine Bridie shaking her fist at her and asking why she had been so stupid as to take the child there in the first place.
    On Sundays as many of the Briargate staff who could be spared from chores and preparing luncheon were expected to go to church in Compton Dando. All those who came from the surrounding villages were also allowed one Sunday in a month to go home after church to visit their families. James and Ruth often got the same Sunday off, but because Nell had to stand in as nursemaid for Rufus when Ruth was not there, she always went home alone.
    It was three weeks since Hope’s first afternoon at Briargate when Nell got her next Sunday off. She was happy as she walked to church with the other servants through Lord’s Wood. The ground was dry, so there would be no mud on her well-polished boots or on her best blue dress, and Lady Harvey had given her a spray of small artificial roses and a blue ribbon to trim her bonnet. Nell was looking forward to seeing her father, for on her regular afternoon off he was always working, and she was lucky if she saw him for more than a few minutes before she had to return to the house. But most of all she was delighted that Albert had joined the other servants today.
    As a gardener he didn’t work at all on Sundays, and up till now he’d always gone to the church in Chelwood. Nell felt he could only have decided to change churches because he wanted to get to know her. It couldn’t be Rose he liked; she was a real old maid of over thirty. Ruby was only fourteen and as skinny as a rake and plain as a pikestaff. That only left Ruth, but to Nell’s knowledge they’d never spoken to each other. Nell wondered if she was brave enough to invite him back to the cottage after the service. Would that seem too forward?
    As if hearing her thoughts, Albert stopped, looked back at her with a smile and waited for her to catch up with him. ‘How many of your family will be at home today?’ he asked.
    Nell thought he could pass for a country gentleman in his tweed jacket, dark green breeches and neat stockings. ‘Just Hope, the two younger boys, and Matt, my oldest brother – he works on the same farm as my father,’ Nell replied. ‘Where are your family?’
    ‘In Penshurst, that’s in Kent,’ Albert said. ‘Only a brother and two sisters and they are married. Our parents died a few years back.’
    ‘James told me you used to work for the Bishop of Wells. What made you come so